King William Planners Ready For 1990

December 20, 1989|By ASHLEA BALL EBELING Staff Writer

KING WILLIAM — County Planner Dennis Carney wanted to take a look back over a year's work before making any New Year's resolutions.

"The last year has been a most challenging year," he said in prepared remarks at Monday night's Planning Commission meeting, exhibiting statistics of the numbers and types of planning and zoning cases heard. "Unfortunately there are no indications that 1990 and the future will give us any relief."

The caseloads of the planner's office, the Planning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals have increased steadily along with the county's population, Carney said, making 1989 a record-setting year. The half-hour commuting distance to Richmond from the burgeoning Route 360 corridor has attracted developers and new residents.

Building permits, for example, number 146 so far this year, with two weeks remaining, while last year 140 were recorded, Carney said.

"We've done a lot of work and should be proud of it," he told the commission. "New Year's resolutions are fine, but you've got to know what you've been doing, to say those are the problems." Carney, the county's zoning administrator, is staff adviser to the commission and the zoning board.

One idea he has is to make zoning recommendations allowing mobile homes permanent from the outset. Now the zoning appeals board permits rezoning for mobile homes on a temporary basis, and the case comes up for extension every two or five years.

The Board of Zoning Appeals, made up of five county residents appointed by the Board of Supervisors, reviewed 19 mobile home cases between December 1988 and November 1989 and granted extensions in 11 cases. The board also granted 22 of 26 special exception permits for mobile homes, cases that will later return for review.

The Planning Commission, made up of nine county residents appointed by the supervisors, heard 13 rezoning cases, including nine for residential subdivisions and four for industrial or commercial uses.

The planners approved four of the five major subdivision requests. The county defines a major subdivision as one with more than seven lots. Three of those four had lot sizes of more than six acres and a total of 61 parcels. The fourth subdivision approved had 29 one-acre lots.

The planners denied the fifth subdivision, saying it did not meet the subdivision ordinance for entrances onto Route 30. The developer is suing the county to overturn the decision.

"Conflict and the threat of litigation will continue to plague the planning process," Carney predicted. "The only way to plan and make decisions for the future is to be forthright and courageous."

In another matter, the board postponed until Jan. 22 William Guy Townsend's request to rezone 200 acres of the Presley Farm, a former dairy farm in Manquin, from rural to residential.